Ms Jacqueline O'Callaghan:

Revenue publishes a broad list of what we call tax expenditures, but we do not define that relative to a benchmark. Instead, the approach taken by Revenue is to publish all available information on tax expenditures, broadly defined as those moneys gathered as part of the role of the administration of taxes. To go into that aspect further, we source data from the returns of income tax, corporation tax, capital acquisitions tax, stamp duty, value-added tax, VAT, and other available sources. Those data show the estimated cost in respect of revenue forgone, as well as the numbers of people who availed of the tax credits and main reliefs and deductions allowable. Several reliefs that may apply to individuals and companies are also included. The costs shown in respect of those reliefs cover income tax and corporation tax. On www.revenue.ie, it can be seen that we publish a statistics link. The cost of tax expenditures can be found there. Additionally, there is a method statement concerning how those figures are arrived at. Therefore, this is about the data we have available and it is the information therein that is published.